Welcome back

Overnight we've had rain after about a fortnight of dry weather. The mini-drought has been holding back grass growth and in places the hillsides are turning brown.
Strange days. But this morning the ground is wet because there's finally been some rain in the night and, if the BBC weatherman is right, there's more on the way.
It feels as though spring has been on hold. Things are changing though, I've just been in the garden and heard my first chiffchaff of the year.
Looking back at last spring's posts, 2012's first chiffchaff was in mid-March. Are they arriving a fortnight later this year, or is it just that I've been not been in the garden so much because it has been cold.
Today's chiffchaff was in the same spot as last year's - some mature trees behind the houses across the road from us. But it didn't seem up to performing its full song, just the warm up notes before the main event; maybe it takes a while to get over the journey.

Another first

Definitely a red letter day - I've just heard my first chiffchaff of the year. It's a marvellous morning here, with warm sunshine, but a covering of frost in the shadows. Before starting work I thought I'd check out my 'followed' tree, which is showing no sign whatsoever of coming to life.

But it's surrounded by other species that are. The buds on field maple and hawthorn saplings nearby are just beginning to burst open and the hedge bank is now covered in dog's mercury.

And to cap it all the chiffchaff. I've mislaid my 2011 diary, so can't say when I heard last year's first chiffchaff, but it does seem early.